SEO - Search Engine Optimization |
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Search engine optimization
(SEO) as a subset of search engine marketing seeks to improve
the number and quality of visitors to a web site from "natural"
("organic" or "algorithmic") search results.
The quality of visitor traffic can be measured by how often a visitor
using a specific keyword leads to a desired conversion action, such
as making a purchase or requesting further information. In effect,
SEO is marketing by appealing first to machine algorithms to increase
search engine relevance and secondly to human visitors. The term
SEO can also refer to "search engine optimizers", an industry
of consultants who carry out optimization projects on behalf of
clients.
Search engine optimization is available as a stand-alone
service or as a part of a larger marketing campaign. Because SEO
often requires making changes to the source code of a site, it is
often most effective when incorporated into the initial development
and design of a site, leading to the use of the term "Search
Engine Friendly" to describe designs, menus, Content management
systems and shopping carts that can be optimized easily and effectively.
A range of strategies and techniques are employed
in SEO, including changes to a site's code (referred to as "on
page factors") and getting links from other sites (referred
to as "off page factors"). These techniques include two
broad categories: techniques that search engines recommend as part
of good design, and those techniques that search engines do not
approve of and attempt to minimize the effect of, referred to as
spamdexing. Some industry commentators classify these methods, and
the practitioners who utilize them, as either "white hat SEO",
or "black hat SEO".[1] Other SEOs reject the black and
white hat dichotomy as an over-simplification.
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